The United States and Japan will step up their defence cooperation to deal with the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea as tensions in East Asia remain high, officials from the two allies said on Thursday.

Vic law to aid domestic abuse victims: A-G

Victorian family violence victims will find it easier to get an intervention order against an attacker and to name and shame them.

Under laws that came into effect on Sunday, police can issue family violence intervention orders around the clock.

Previously, police could only issue those orders outside business hours, which forced victims to go to court at other times.

Attorney-General Robert Clark said it meant police could protect victims all day, every day.

"It makes no sense to say police can act on the spot to protect a victim if the victim needs help at eight o'clock on a weekday morning, yet the police can't act on the spot to help that victim if the violence occurs at nine o'clock on that same weekday morning," Mr Clark told reporters.

The new law also allows victims to name their attackers publicly, removing the need to get court permission.

"From now on, perpetrators of family violence will not be able to hide behind laws that were intended to be there to protect victims," he said.

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Mr Clark said the new laws empowered victims to take more control of a situation, adding it was important that those who committed family violence could be publicly held to account.

"The importance of this reform is to drive home to would-be perpetrators that violence against a family member in the home is just as much a crime as violence against a stranger on the street," he said.